I wouldn’t have broken my stride to shoot even the one shot I took of this CLK, if it hadn’t been for our new flat paint series. These blobby and dull little cars, sent out by Mercedes on an utterly futile mission to replace the brilliant W124 E-Series coupe, perfectly represent the great fall of the house of Mercedes starting right about then (1996 or so). The CLK’s whole mission was such over-reach; give the little C-Series a coupe body, change its name, jack up its price and sell it as a successor to the E-Series coupe, the last of a long line of venerable predecessors. Pffft; decades of hard-earned brand equity up in a feeble little puff of smoke. Nothing to see here; let’s keep moving.
I couldn’t agree more about the CLK. Such a cynical marketing exercise on a feeble excuse for a Mercedes. Hell, this doughy little tub wouldn’t have even made for a good Toyota for a third of the price. Never mind that it wasn’t even close to Toyota’s higher quality standards. For years I had dreamed of getting an E Class Coupe–I loved those cars! Then this comes along and the dream was flat out ruined. A poster child for a horrible, cheap era at Mercedes. Side note: I am also shocked at how many Mercedes of this vintage that I see absolutely riddled with rust in the Chicago area, more so than virtually any other make from the same time period.
As for the flat paint, I simply don’t get it at all on any car. Looks like primer, or worse. At least on this turd it helps blend it into the background…
In addition to the rust, the cloudy yellow headlight lenses look so classy as well.
I “love” – read HATE – the plastic headlight lenses on the newer cars. After three years it looks like the car has cataracts! My E320s had glass lenses of course. I had to replace one once and it was expensive. Fortunately my insurance had a low deductible for windshields and headlights.
The W202 (’94-’00 C), W210 (’96-’02 E), and W208 (this car) rust terribly in my area (New England). The early W220 S and W203 C also have rust issues.
The W211, on the other hand, seems very resistant to rust. Our nearly decade-old W211 doesn’t have a speck of rust!
I worked for an insurance co for a while and was based in a local body shop for a few months that was a “Mercedes authorized shop” the local dealer sent them a number of early 2000 S- class with very upset owners to have rust repairs completed on the front doors and sills. I believe they said MBUSA was paying part of the bill as goodwill.
My father has a 2003 Mercedes-Benz E280 in Germany. A few years ago, he received a recall notice from Mercedes-Benz Deutschland, asking him to bring his car in the shop for a complete replacement of all four doors due to the unexpected rust issues. My father also received a loaner car for a few weeks.
I don’t get the matte paint thing, either. These jobs are appearing all over SoCal, on everything from Escalades to Rollers and Bentleys. Every time I see one I think how sad to do this to an expensive car. Is there something I’m missing?
They are out here in Indiana too, which should tell you that the fad has about run its course on the coasts. 🙂
Did the last primer black fad ever really end in Indiana though? 🙂
Yes – we had gone over to gray primer quite some time ago. 🙂
Although I would never personally leave a car primed, I can understand the appeal of the look to rat-rodders and their fellow travelers. But what looks good on a Bucket-T or a ’49 Merc doesn’t work nearly so well on upscale Euro machinery like a Benz, where it’s just a big esthetic mistake.
BTW, if you ever want to get a rat-rodder or primer-lover mad at you, ask him (or her), “So… what color’s it gonna be when it’s finally done?”
“Whaddya mean, when it’s done? It IS done!”
“Really? You mean you’re just going to… LEAVE it like that? And what about all the rust on your chrome. You’re getting that rechromed, right?”
“No! It’s SUPPOSED to be that way!”
“You’re kidding! You LIKE it like this?”
And so on.
I like the flat “murdered” out look just not really in this generation. Would look much better on the newer generation Benz car that have more square lines and square headlights. Usually, people just do this with a few cans of spray paint. Hey, it will keep rust from spreading. Just how long does it last? That shiny clear coat is really what gives the paint protection from the UV light and howling winds? The problem was for me, that the 5-series of that time was great and would rather have a 530 or 540i over any Benz even if they were sedans I also found these a little too feminine looking as well. .
The CLK looks more like a Neon than a Mercedes.
Probably a wrap, not paint. It sure looks as if it was on fire for a brief moment.
The model changes from W124 to W210 and from W201 to W202.
What a HORRIBLE decline in overall quality !
Let me be the first to comment: Amen! (oops, while I was commenting several others got in ahead of me) I was fortunate to own two W124s – a sedan and a coupe. Both had the M104 DOHC six. The quality of the materials and the craftsmanship was outstanding! The performance of the car was equal to its material quality. The CLK was definitely not up to the standard of its predecessor.
I traded the sedan for a 2003 ML 350 for my wife. That was not as big a disaster as some might think. Except for a power steering pump and one broken window regulator the car was reliable for 100,000 miles. Maintenance was expensive though. My wife loved her ML. She took several road trips either with our children or her sister. We live in Texas and most of the relatives live in Minnesota. The ML had TeleAid but fortunately we never had to use it but it gave me comfort knowing she had it while she traversed the country. She recently traded the ML for a 2-wheel drive GLK 350 which she likes even more.
My 1995 E320 Coupe (dunkel blau 908) was one of only 307 sold in the U.S. that last year of production. I am sure it was, and forever will be, the best car I’ve ever owned. Alas, after 13 years and nearly 150,000 miles I had to let it go. It needed expensive transmission repairs and it was more practical to buy a new car than continue to maintain one that was well into its second decade.
I sold it to my Mercedes-only mechanic. He rebuilt the transmission and sold or gave the car to his office manager. She is driving it to this day and adores it. My mechanic keeps it in top mechanical condition for her of course though the paint and interior is starting to show its age.
I replaced the Coupe with a MINI Cooper Clubman. It was a great car and fun to drive but just wasn’t what a 50+ year old man exhibiting the girth of relative success needed it to be. After 10 months I traded the MINI on a C-Class Mercedes-Benz. It was a nearly even trade since the MINI was highly optioned and the Benz was a COPO with less than 9,000 miles. The little is a competent and comfortable vehicle. It gets great gas mileage too.
I’ve never put a stopwatch on any car I’ve owned but it seems to me the in-line 6 in my E320 Coupe (sedan too for that matter), though it is rated about 9 fewer horsepower than the V6 in the C-Class and has only a four-speed automatic vs. seven gears for the newer car, had more “urge” during acceleration especially at speeds above 70mph.
A colleague of mine owns an early model CLK which he maintains very well. I believe he would have replaced it by now but certain economic realities have prevented that. I’ve had the opportunity to ride in and drive the car so I can say unequivocally it was a definite come-down from the W124 coupe.
I apologize for beating a dead horse but another point of interest is the last of the W124 coupes had a sticker price in the low $60k range and the CLK was somewhat below $50k. Take that for what it is worth.
But for the CLK’s price you could’ve had two well-optioned thirdgen Camrys; one to drive and one to lay up for when cost-cutting had taken its’ toll in Aichi just as it had in Untertuerkheim.
I will NEVER buy a premium coupe with fixed rear glass. Harumpf!
These cars were a joke, and say “Nissan Sentra” or “tin can” to me.
A new pillarless CLK? Oh, yeah – IF I was an M-B type, and IF I could afford it… but I’m not a luxury car guy, just a Chevy guy.
Nothing screams stupid like chrome wheelz and shiny door handles on a flat black car. If you are going to spray bomb something flat black, do it wrong THE RIGHT WAY. No opinions on the appliance itself…oops, that slipped out.
Those wheels don’t do it any favors either.
While all long-lived companies obviously have different leadership over the years, you kind of hope for the positive aspects and philosophy of the company to endure, especially if you’re a fan. But the changes at Meredes just seem so palpable that the changing of the guard has been so clearly evident. The CLK is definitely from the worst era, which quickly came after what, IMO, was the best. Now, while I pretty much don’t like how any of the current cars look, or like their marketing or image, at least the cars are quite “nice” and the quality of the interiors seems to have improved a lot. I’ve been in a few recent new ones (an E550 recently), and I was very impressed.
But, Paul, how do you really feel?
I have been starting to see more and more CLKs and E classes of this generation when I go through the hood. They are sometimes really thrashed looking and often have rims and bad window tint. Guess this means these cars have now bottomed out in value.
I actually liked the W210 sedans. I can’t comment on the quality and reliability of the W210 vs the W124, but in terms of looks, I’ve always found the W210 attractive. I like the double headlights and the overall profile of the car. I was elegant looking.
That said, this generation CLK coupe and convertible didn’t look quite right. Especially in the coupe form like this, the hood, trunk, and roofline is too high for a 2-door (surprisingly the beltline is the only one that looks the right height). It’s stance is too tall and even cartoonish. These were not elegant looking cars, and not worthy of Mercedes. My feelings of the current C-Class coupe are similar.
As for the current W212 E-Class (all body styles), I really like it! I’ve test driven a 2011 E350 sedan, and spent a great deal of time in a showroom 2013 E350 cabriolet. Material quality is excellent, putting most other cars in its class to shame. The styling is sharp and decisively different compared to the blob-ish look of many other current luxury sedans.
I agree with you on the W210, but the W203 C-Class coupe was worse than both the new C coupe and the CLK. CLKs are cartoonish though,
I wonder if Peter and Lois were surprised at how happy the were to get their box Panther wagon back…
Meg, who let you back in the house!?
I completely forgot about the W203 coupe. Probably because I don’t even consider it a coupe, it was a hatchback. Definitely one of the saddest MBs ever. Most of them I saw had cheap cloth seats that look liked they came out of a Dodge/Plymouth Neon.
BTW you just made my day with the Family Guy reference.
I confess that I liked the W210 when they were new, but as soon as the W211 replaced it, the W210 immediately looked stodgy…and not in the way a W123 or W124 looks purposeful, just dated. The rust problems haven’t helped it!
The funny thing is that while I think the W211 has aged very well (I’m slightly biased, though), its CLS sibling has not.
I kind of disagree, I feel like the W210 has aged well. To me, it looks remarkably modern and up to date for a car that was first built 18 years ago.
I’ve never been a fan of the W211. Always thought it looked like a melted down W210, and I do actually think that the interior was sub-par for an E-Class. Just my opinion though.
Maybe I came across as a little harsh on the W210. It was actually among my favorite cars when I was a kid in elementary school, and collected brochures from the car show. I might have even had a poster of the E55 AMG.
I think the W210 did in fact age well, except for rust and the treatment of certain owners. It’s just that when the W211 arrived, it was like a time warp compared the the W210’s transitionary phase. I still like both generations.
The W208, on the other hand, looked like a clown car in the first place, and certainly did not get any better with time.
Here’s, in short, how it worked in the old-school-Mercedes days.
Engineer and build, both German virtues to begin with, the best car on the market, using only the best materials. (And this is crucial: Bean counters were not allowed to intervene) Then just simply add up what all that costs and, finally, add a healthy profit margin for the organisation. And there it is: the list price of a new Mercedes. Take it or leave it, or in this case, buy it or not.
Mercedes customers, often very loyal, had no problem with that because they (and everybody else) knew very well that they drove the best built mass-produced car.
I think the W124, W201 and W126 were the last models built according to this
formula. After that, during the early nineties, competition got better and Mercedes got worse.
Roughly said, 1995-2005 were bad Mercedes years. After that they were back on track.
But I’m afraid the days of W123-124-201 build quality will not come back.
That kind of car would simply be priceless these days.
I wonder if the “bad Mercedes years” have anything to do with Daimler-Chrysler?
Cost reductions, cost reductions and cost reductions.
I mean, a W210 with serious rust problems, just after a few years ?
An early W211 with all sorts of electronic bugs ?
Take an Mk2 W211 (2006-2009), much better ! And I must say, I really like the looks of the W211.
Nahhhhhhhhhh. The bad years as I understand them were 1995 to 2005 or so. I did lust after big Mercedes sedans back in the late 80s to early 90s but I’ve transferred that lust to LS400/LS430 Lexus sedans.
I think it had more to do with meeting the challenge posed by Lexus, which was big news in the early 1990s.
Who ? Lexus ?
Just kidding, but Lexus (just like Infiniti and Acura) is mainly a North American phenomenon. Sure, we’ve got Lexus dealerships. But a big Lexus model (LS) was, is and will always be a rarity. The hybrid and compact CT 200h hatchback is the only model with some degree of success.
What I like (in this class) from the early nineties is a Big, Fat, Black, W140-Helmut Kohl Kathedral. With Twelve Apostles under the hood.
If reliability is the only thing that matters I would buy an Ox Wagon.
Here in the States, by the time Lexus hit, M-B prices had been in the stratosphere for quite awhile. The Lexus LS offered a car that was maybe 85-90% of the size, power and features of a big Benz and a HUGE reduction in price. This was really the first time Mercedes had faced any significant competition at the high end of the market here. Lexus took quite a bite out of M-B’s sales here.
In Europe BMW and Audi started to penetrate Mercedes territory more and more. Especially Audi, 25 years ago Audi was not a serious Mercedes alternative. But then they started to climb the ladder.
The official nickname for the W140 I mentioned above actually was “The Cathedral”. It was literally too much at the wrong time. (recession)
Its successor, the W220, was less decadent.
As a former w124 owner, these CLKs still make me mad. Almost as bad as a FWD Fleetwood.
Did it have a BRABUS badge on the back?
their is probably a v12 badge conspicuously placed somewhere on that thing.
It could also be a diesel 4 banger too,
No, bottom of the range here was the 320, never offered a diesel version.
Actually, I like the engines that were available in these. the 3.2 V6 and the 4.3 DOHC V8. Good engines.
Best Bogan Blak, I do like the colour NZs sporting colours it just needs a silver fern on the hood, but its a Benz and Ive overtaken far too many when their drivers have been “trying” to be impressed sorry, nice cars I’m told by some though the engineer who rebuilt the Harmonic balancer for my 406 Pug had some rather uncomplimentry comments about his supercharged Mercedes everything behind the pointed star was rubbish according to him go like stink he reckoned when it ran.
I’ve always liked the look of these cars – I think it’s a beautiful design. That said, the paint and wheels on this example do it no favors.
Just a Gen 3 Taurus with an upright grille.
While I don’t much care for it on this car, at least the flat paint on this one appears to at least be well done, unlike the other cars posted recently.
Save for a tad better consistency, I don’t think it makes much difference. Both look equally trashy at 15 feet so what does it matter if the substantially cheaper rattlecan job looks worse from any closer?
The CLK looked a bit better as a convertible.
I will never understand flat paint on a new or late model car. Looks like the owner waxed it and forgot to wipe it off!
Flat paint did in a career identity theft criminal in Northern California recently. The description of his new car (no doubt bought with ill-gotten gains) was put out as a 2012 Honda Accord four-door (lotsa luck with that one) in FLAT BLACK PAINT.
Once that broadcast went out, it took less than a day for him to be traffic-stopped, arrested, and taken to the local hoosegow. The judge set his bail in the MILLIONS of dollars.
Ahhhhhh….. Stealth matt. It was the fully-sick drug dealer’s colour of choice on their Lambos here in Melbiami. They payed a motza for this option, then once they realised bird droppings made a permanent stain, they had them resprayed. Hehehe